As the global economy continues on its trajectory of change, the pressure is on Australia to maintain a knowledge and skills base that can change and adapt to keep up with the world around us.

The race is being run, won and lost every day. It is a continuing race and educational results tell us that Australia is losing ground from its strong position a decade ago.

It is no surprise to see Shanghai at the head of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's achievement table. There is an obvious link between its outstanding educational outcomes and its great leap forward as one of the world's most dynamic cities and a centre for financial services and manufacturing.

"I have always believed a dynamic society is born of a high-quality education system" ... David Gonski. Photo: Andrew Meares

But perhaps more of a surprise is the pack now ahead of us in mathematics - Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and China: Macau. Canada also does better than us among 15-year-olds in the Program for International Student Assessment tests for reading, mathematics and science, and so does New Zealand.

Advertisement

Another worrying trend is that Australia is also achieving lower levels of equity than several other high-performing OECD countries. This means that student background has a bigger influence on educational outcomes in Australia than in countries such as Canada and Finland.

On average, socio-economically advantaged students are achieving better outcomes than disadvantaged, metropolitan students, who are achieving better than rural and remote students, and disabled students are falling behind their peers. This is not acceptable in Australia, where we pride ourselves on giving everyone a ''fair go''.

Australia must aspire to have a school system that is among the best in the world for its quality and equity, and this means we must prioritise support for our neediest students as well as increase achievement for all. Every child should have access to the best possible education, regardless of where they live, the income of their family or the school they attend.

I have always believed a dynamic society is born of a high-quality education system. In the long-term every Australian benefits when schools produce students with the skills to succeed in life and contribute in a volatile and competitive world economy.

There's no doubt Australia needs a high-quality schooling system. What is in doubt is whether that system can keep pace with improving quality in other countries and whether current funding arrangements stand in the way of it doing so.

The funding system that sustains our three school sectors - government, Catholic and independent - is complex, confusing, opaque and inconsistent across states and territories, and obscures educational goals and accountability.

We now have the opportunity to turn Australia's good education system into an even better system, one that ensures differences in educational outcomes are not the result of difference in wealth, income, power or possession. A system that will lift the performance of students at all levels of achievement, particularly the lowest performers.

Central to this is the allocation of resources according to the needs of students, regardless of the sector in which they go to school. That's why the review panel has proposed Australia adopt a Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) that would have two elements: the amount of per-student investment required to provide a high-quality education; plus loadings that target disadvantage.

The SRS would provide a basis for all recurrent funding for schooling, whether from the Australian government, state and territory governments, as well as private sources. The SRS can be the starting point for a new funding system that is transparent, fair, financially sustainable and educationally effective.

Significant further work is needed to test and develop the different elements of this kind of standard. These next steps will require concerted effort across governments, the education community and the public.

The ability to build on schooling reform through continued collaborative partnerships between governments and the non-government school sector will be the key to the success of new funding arrangements.

It will take time. It will take an understanding of the challenges for governments across Australia implementing the report's recommendations. It will take an understanding that resources alone do not bring about real change and that extensive reform is also required to the delivery of schooling that addresses teacher practice and quality, school autonomy and leadership, among other areas.

I believe in and have witnessed the power of a good education to transform the lives of individuals. That's why I took on the challenge of leading a panel with an outstanding and diverse membership, a panel tasked with reviewing the current system and recommending one that we feel will give our children the chance to be their best and drive an economy that will maintain Australia's wealth and future.

Australia and its children, now and in the future, deserve nothing less.

David Gonski, AC, is chair of the panel for the federal government Review of Funding for Schooling. Tomorrow: what would the Gonski Review mean for parents choosing a school?

148 comments

Howard has won

What a relief, it's Howard's Way forever. The over-funded god schools can get on with their important work of perpetuating inherited privilege. For exactly how many privileged generations does Gillard's monstrously unfair 'no school will lose a dollar' promise last?

Commenter

Stephen

Date and time

February 21, 2012, 8:33AM

If Labor were consistent they would remove ALL federal funding from non-government schools - after all, wef 1 July they will not subsidise private health, so why should they subsidise private education?

The same argument those who want continued funding of private schools use (but there will be a dramatic drift of students back to the overloaded public schools) can equally be applied to private health, and has been dismissed by the government.

So come on Labor, be consistent! Just as you have removed funding from private health, remove funding from private education!!

Oh wait .. that's right .. potential Labor voters don't use private health, but they DO use private education ..

Commenter

rob1966

Date and time

February 21, 2012, 9:45AM

Dear socialist,You do understand that South Koreans spend up to and even over 40% OF THEIR OWN INCOME schooling their children by paying for private classes after school, in their own home, don't you? I mean you do understand that a third world nation can rise up and the citizens therein understand that they are responsible for educating their own kids?

You do also understand that the South Koreans don't worship housing like Australians do don't you? I mean nobody made them worship education over housing, they CHOOSE to educate their own kids with their own money.

And you do understand that most South Koreans aren't particularly reliant on their local government funded schools as they just produce the same scores in bigger groups.

I'm wondering why a South Korean street sweeper can pay for private tutors for their own kids but we in the lucky country deem over priced housing as being of more value than our childrens education?

Hmm, do you think we should tell the South Koreans to stop spending their own money on education so that our socialist school system can keep up?

Commenter

Alex

Location

Finley

Date and time

February 21, 2012, 9:53AM

Once again, the people who work the hardes, pay the most tax and have a few ambitions for themselves and their children - will be slugged with more tax & will be forcably "equalised" by the Labor socialists. It's not always just about the money.....with Labor in control, it's more about making everyone stupidly equal & equally poor.

Commenter

kiki

Location

melbourne

Date and time

February 21, 2012, 12:47PM

$5Billion seems like peanuts when compared to the $250Billion that Labor have wasted to date. Maybe if they didn't spend & borrow at such a ferocious pace, there might now be something left over to look after hospitals, schools, infrastructure, etc....as it is, they've already pi**ed it all up against the big Labor wall....with little to show for it.

Commenter

Chrissy of St. Kilda

Location

melbourne

Date and time

February 21, 2012, 12:53PM

And where do you get this figure from? Absolute rubbish.

Commenter

The Redman

Location

Canberra

Date and time

February 21, 2012, 1:16PM

Crissy - thank you for cracking me up!!!!

Wasted $250M? Care to break that Alan Jones (sorry, you are down south *insert ludicrous right wing nutjob name in here*) figure down? Do you believe the BER/stimulus did not work, that the government killed people with pink batts etc ??

Please crack me up - this government is terrible at selling its' achievements but it is sad that so many twits can't see them!

Commenter

BadSax

Date and time

February 21, 2012, 1:26PM

Kiki, if you seriously think that a millionaire pays their full, highest rate in tax, I'll run down Northbourne Avenue in the nudie.

Commenter

The Redman

Location

Canberra

Date and time

February 21, 2012, 1:33PM

kiki, the Liberal Party loves aspirationals like yourself, because in spite of the fact that the system will prevent you getting very much ahead of anyone else, you will always blindly follow them anyway. The only people that benefit from the policies of the Liberal Party in real terms are the mega rich. Everyone else, including you, will only see breadcumbs.

Commenter

Tone

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

February 21, 2012, 3:07PM

Stephen,

You appear to have taken a slightly bizzarre approach to this issue. First of all, Mr Gonski is the author of a REPORT to the Federal Government, which makes a number of findings and recommendations to the Federal government. In other words, this REPORT TO THE GOVERNMENT does not represent government policy. Policy is formed (at least in good governments like this one) using reports such as this as INPUT to the development process.

Secondly, the recommendations of the report do not include a recommendation for a continuation of the existing discrimination in favour of private schools. By recommending a per-student funding model, with a base-rate that can be adjusted upwards to meet special needs, the report is clearly recomending a departure from the Howard-era funding model, under which students at public schools were heavily discriminated against.

Of course, we would have a better education system if we could abolish the private sector altogether and ensure that the ONLY imperative of any educational institution supported by public money is the EDUCATION OF OUR CHILDREN. Of course, private schools have a different imperative: revenue generation and, in many cases, religious or ideological indoctrination. It is therefore inevitable that continuing to fund private education providers with the generosity of the Howard-era model will ensure a less than optimal exploitation of available resources.

Unfortunately it is politically impossible to rationalise Australia's education system under the current circumstances, with our press controlled from overseas and heavily biased toward the discredited idoelogy of "neo-liberalism". Getting a bigger share of the Federal pie for public education, as the report recommends, is the best we can hope for at the moment.

21 Feb
FEDERAL government funding for every student regardless of the income of their parents or the wealth of their school is now part of a ''citizenship entitlement'', with the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, yesterday in effect declaring it part of a new Australian compact.

21 Feb
More than 60 years ago, the Labor prime minister Ben Chifley opined: "Education is a state matter under the constitution. Besides it is all mixed up with religion and causes all sorts of trouble in the Labor Party." Three decades later, in 1973, the Whitlam government, through a mix of political need and opportunity, plunged into school funding with its seminal Karmel report. School funding has caused all sorts of trouble for federal Labor ever since.